By CRAIG FREILICH

Amid unusually dry conditions in the North Country, many farmers and gardeners are fearing their crops will not grow well and government officials could order another burn ban if significant rain doesn’t arrive soon.

At the same time, canoeists and kayakers are experiencing low water levels more commonly seen in local rivers later in the summer. And forestry experts are concerned the lack of rainfall could affect area trees.

But so far in the Village of Canton, where the municipal water system is supplied by wells, officials are not concerned about a water shortage.

“There’s not much we can do but hope for rain,” said Jon Greenwood, president of the St. Lawrence County Farm Bureau and owner of a sizeable dairy herd and crop fields in Canton.

He said that just prior to a sprinkle in the middle of June, his corn’s leaves were curling due to stress in the heat and dry conditions.

The little showers and cooler weather that week helped, Greenwood said, “and if the corn canopy covers the ground, that helps slow evaporation, but with 80 degrees and wind, it just sucks the moisture out of the ground.”

“Every gardener I’ve talked to says it’s dry. Farmers are telling me it’s really starting to get a little worrisome,” said St. Lawrence County Cooperative Extension Educator Paul Hetzler..

Referring to recent sprinkles, a couple of good downpours, and a hot spell, he said “every bit of rain helps. It’s welcome, but the hot conditions (recently) with full sun and a little bit of wind, that will be all gone.”

Watching For Grass Fires

A rash of “significant wildland and grass fires producing undue hardship on responders” would trigger another state of emergency and a ban on outdoor burning, according to St. Lawrence County Emergency Services Director Michael LeCuyer.

The county declared a state of emergency and imposed a ban on outdoor burning from May 31 to June 14 when it was decided fire danger was too great due to dry vegetation and little rain.

“We let the burn ban expire after two weeks,” said Michael LeCuyer.

But spotty rain and a thunderstorm or two since then “have not produced a significant enough amount of rain to improve the outlook much,” LeCuyer said, and he and the county’s political leaders are keeping an eye on the situation.

Hetzler agreed. “I think since mid-April we haven’t had any significant rain even with the two inches or so we got” earlier in June, he said.

That’s confirmed by the U.S. drought monitor map, which has categorized our part of the North Country as “abnormally dry” since mid-May.

‘Hope For Rain’

There’s a difference between house fires and grass fires and the way firefighters have to respond to them, LeCuyer explained.

“A structure fire is consolidated in one place, but wildland fires can spread quickly,” requiring more resources over a broader area. That can quickly exhaust the materials and personnel a fire department might have on hand, he explained.

“We’ve not seen a significant increase in wildland and grass fires ... but we will stay tuned for any need for a new burn ban.” If that happens, he said, he would make a recommendation to the chair of the Board of Legislators, who would issue the decree if he sees fit to do so.

Hetzler’s specialty is forestry, and he said the recent rain “was not enough to get through turf roots” to water most trees.

“Any tree growing in turf, whether it’s in an orchard or home landscaping, at this point needs several days of soaking rain.” He said something like three inches in three days could do the trick, “but if we get a storm with three inches at once, that would be useless” because most of it would just run off before the ground could absorb it.

Grass is a little better off in dry conditions, he said.

“Trees roots might be 18 inches deep. They’re not well-drillers. They depend on water close to surface,” he said.

But when it gets dry “grass can go dormant. Trees don’t.” Grass will turn brown and its roots will survive, but trees are not that adaptable.

Canton’s Supply Okay So Far

Concern has existed for some time that the Village of Canton’s water supply from Waterman Hill might someday prove inadequate, but Canton Superintendent of Works Brien Hallahan says there is no indication so far that the wells on Waterman Hill are not providing a sufficient amount of water for village residences and businesses.

Gene Newman, president of the St. Lawrence Valley Paddlers, a club of recreational canoeists and kayakers, said rivers in the North Country and around the region are affected.

“It is pretty low right now,” he said of the Grasse River, site of many of the club’s events in Canton and Madrid.

“This year it’s starting low, but that’s not very unusual. It’s at a more traditional summer level right now. The last couple of years have spoiled us” due to heavier mountain runoff those years, Newman said.

He said the levels might be low right now, but not so bad that paddlers should expect to rip out the bottoms of their watercraft if they head out onto the water. And he reports that “there are stretches on the Oswegatchie and the Grasse where it doesn’t matter how low it gets” because of the depth in those spots.

Dam Gauges Show Low Levels

The Brookfield power dams along the Raquette, where gauge measure discharge flow and water levels, are an indicator of the water in the riverbed, but will vary greatly during cycles of releases for power generation and then allowing the water to build up behind the dam again.

For about a week and a half beginning May 28, the daily discharge at the Raquette River power dam in South Colton in South Colton dipped below the average of 1,540 cubic feet per second several times, barely making it over 1,000 cfs, but the usual up-and-down pattern of release and refill that prevailed before then resumed around June 14. The water level gauge height readings followed a similar pattern.

At the dam in Raymondville, average daily discharges at the facility dipped below 1,000 cfs in late May and early June, well below the mean of 1,740 cfs, rebounded for about a week peaking above 3,000 cfs, and since than has dropped below 1,000 cfs again. The gauge height followed a similar pattern, at a low of about 1.75 feet in the first week of June, then up to nearly four feet several days later, then back down again to about 2.25 feet.

A similar discharge pattern has prevailed at the dam at Piercefield, and has been below average since June 17. A graph of the gauge height mirrors discharge rates.

At the dam along the St. Regis River near Parishville, the gauge measuring the height of the river read above three feet around June 8, but has dropped steadily since then to below 1.5 feet June 22 but has rebounded to above 1.5 ft.

The U.S. Drought Monitor service, at http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/, is a collaboration of the US Department of Agriculture, the National drought Mitigation Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.